The Ending Of Beckett Explained

Contains spoilers for "Beckett."

A picturesque trip to Greece with your significant other. What could possibly go wrong? Well, for the titular character in Netflix's new thriller "Beckett" — a lot. Starring John David Washington as the American tourist in question, "Beckett" follows a young man and his girlfriend April (Alicia Vikander) as they enjoy a vacation in Athens. The two make their way to a new location as protests erupt outside their hotel, but as Beckett drives the car on the late-night journey, he falls asleep at the wheel and crashes — killing April.

Beckett awakens in a hospital and while there's a language barrier, he manages to explain the situation to the police. He eventually makes his way back to the scene of the accident and revisits the spot where April died, when suddenly he finds people shooting at him. For reasons unknown, Beckett becomes the target of a countrywide manhunt with seemingly everyone after him.

How did Beckett get entangled in such a horrible situation? Will he ever make it to safety at the U.S. embassy? Here's the ending of "Beckett" explained.

After driving the car off a cliff and through the wall of a home, Beckett sees a blonde woman and red-haired boy for a few seconds before the woman rushes the pair out of the house. Beckett of course has other things to worry about, and moves onto checking on April. 

When Beckett later returns to the crash site, the blonde woman appears again only to start shooting at Beckett. The young boy later appears as well, though this time his face is plastered all over "lost" posters. As it turns out, he's Dimos (Filippos Ioannidis), the nephew of the political leader Karras, and he's been kidnapped. The fact that Beckett not only saw the boy himself but then returned to the same hideout spot made him a liability to the people behind the abduction.

And just why was Dimos kidnapped in the first place? The original theory was that Karras' politics threatened the existing extremist groups in Greece, and Dimos was abducted to dissuade his activism. By the end of the film, however, we learn that Karras was actually in financial trouble with some bad people, and Dimos was taken as a hostage against repayment. Since Beckett appeared and threatened to expose the entire situation, he was pinned as the culprit, when really he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Aside from Beckett just being a nice person, there may be a deeper meaning behind his mission to save the abducted child. A common theme throughout "Beckett" is the titular character's grief over losing his girlfriend in the crash that he accidentally caused. He seems to be ready to die by suicide right after the accident, he breaks down when their hotel location is mentioned, and he asks different Greek officials multiple times if he can see her body and have her sent home. It's clear that he's wracked with guilt over the whole situation, which makes it even more hard to process the grief of losing a loved one.

By the end of the movie, Beckett has been shot, beaten, and bruised, and he's finally had enough. He goes full superhero mode to chase after Dimos, even jumping on top of a car to rescue the boy. He succeeds in his mission but instead of celebrating, he looks almost as defeated as ever. He looks at his hand, which still has the heart April drew on it days earlier, and breaks down again, before repeating "I should have died."

Beckett's not only shocked about the entire situation, but also that he survived the crash that killed his girlfriend. His decision to save Dimos is a way to deal with his grief — he couldn't save April, but he can save this helpless boy.

"Beckett" is full of twists and turns — just when you think you've figured out the truth, another curve ball is thrown. Earlier in the film, Beckett gets a ride from two Greek women, Lena (Vicky Krieps) and Eleni (Maria Votti), who catch him up to speed with the political rumors. The conspiracy seems to center around an ultranationalist group called Sunrise who have issues with Karras' policies. The local police are entwined with Sunrise as well, meaning the group has internal protections that make finding Dimos even more difficult.

The truth actually comes from the U.S. embassy official Stephen Tynan (Boyd Holbrook), who at first listens to Beckett's story and then insists on bringing him to the local police. While on their way to the supposed police, the two men overhear a reporter on the radio say that another group took responsibility for the abduction — the Communist Brigade. Mystery solved, right? Not quite.

Tynan reveals himself to be a bad guy, attempting to taser Beckett, but not doing so successfully. The two later meet again in a basement of a building, where Tynan gets news of Karras' assassination before revealing the actual truth of the conspiracy: Karras' financial issues with the local mafia. Tynan gives a lukewarm apology for Beckett's terrifying ordeal and offers to let him go back to the U.S. without any further trouble. 

Beckett understandably beats the crap out of him and saves the day. A happy ending in our book.